When a Dream Starts to Feel Real

I finally submitted my first book to be self published! Love, Life & Life will be a reality before I know it. It feels exciting, surreal and like the start of something new and beautiful.

After so much dedication and time of writing, rewriting, proofreading, formatting, designing, second-guessing, changing commas, tweaking layouts and asking myself "Is it really ready?", I finally reached the point where I could submit my very first poetry collection for publication. My finger however over that submit button with a nervous and eager pit in my stomach for what felt like eternity before I finally clicked it and took that step.

People often see the finished book on a shelf and don't realise how much happens before it gets there. There have been countless hours spent choosing fonts, making sure every poem starts on the correct page, designing the cover, buying an ISBN, writing descriptions and keywords , checking margins, fixing formatting issues and learning an entirely new publishing process from scratch. What a rollercoaster and a learning curve it has been.

There have been moments of excitement, moments of frustration and plenty of moments where I wondered whether I was doing it all correctly. Every step has been a learning curve, but every challenge has brought me one step closer to holding this book in my hands.

Submitting the files doesn't mean the journey is over. There are still proofs to review, final checks to make and that wonderful moment when I'll finally be able to announce that Love, Loss & Life is officially available. But today feels like crossing a huge milestone.

This book is more than a collection of poems. It's pieces of my life, my heart and the experiences that have shaped me. It holds love, grief, resilience, hope, chronic illness, healing and the reminder that even in our darkest moments, there is still light to be found.

It's strange to think that something which started as words scribbled down in quiet moments could soon be sitting on someone's bookshelf, perhaps bringing comfort to someone I'll never meet.

For now, I'm taking a moment to be proud of how far this journey has come.

The next update, hopefully, will be even more exciting.

Narissa